Raising environmental awareness among the guests at La Grange d'Ychippe led to a significant changes in the environmental standards at the guesthouse.
The compost in the garden of La Grange d'Ychippe (Picture by E. Uskokovic)
The owner of the cottage located in the magnificent Condroz region near Ciney (Belgium Wallonia) tells: "When I started the accommodation, I could see the guests leave the rooms with the windows open and the heating turned on. I had always tons of garbage, and I could see that my business was not sustainable and that if I continued like this I could not hold on.”
Since then, La Grange d'Ychippe became Green Key awarded and the guesthouse actually made enormous progress to save water and energy and to reduce its waste. That is also made possible by educating customers. By leaving small information signs about environmentally friendly gestures, like the best use of water, or which waste go to the compost. This environmental education is for the kids and especially for the parents. The owner is always on the lookout on news ideas to improve its Green Key action plan. There is already various educational materials and games on the environment, and the owner would like to set up teaching panels for children, about the various issues related to biodiversity.
In the garden, there is a pond, different shelters for fauna and flora, a flowery meadow, and the establishment uses principles of differentiated management in their garden. The owner is currently building an insect house and she had already made a shelter for hedgehogs. The green space of the guesthouse is a true oasis for biodiversity, a place of relaxation for parents and discoveries for children.
It is a voluntary approach to do the actions in favour of the nature but after the owner has been engaging with Green key, this approach continues to develop: "We adopt this philosophy in favour of the environment not only for our guesthouse but everywhere around us ".
The pond in the garden of La Grange d'Ychippe (Picture by E. Uskokovic)